Alternate Takes 10.10.09: The Brat Pack
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 10.10.2009
In this week's Alternate Takes, Shawn S. Lealos looks back to the eighties and the infamous Brat Pack.
Welcome to Week 72 of Alternate Takes. I am your host Shawn S. Lealos and you have now entered my world.
Movie releases for the Week of October 9-15, 2009
THIS WEEK'S RELEASES:
After a packed week of mainstream theatrical releases, we only get one wide release this week. That release is Couple's Retreat, and I immediately started to connect this to movies involving the Frat Pack. Well, that is an incorrect thought as the only member of the Frat Pack to appear in this movie is Vince Vaughn as apparently Jon Favreau is not a part of the group. That made me question what the criteria are of being a member and realized the membership has no real criteria except the actors admitting they are a part.
For those unsure of the significance of this group, it is the third such grouping of actors and arguably the least significant. The first group is the legendary Rat Pack, led by The Chairman of the Board himself, Frank Sinatra. This week's Alternate Takes will look at the other group, the eighties era Brat Pack.
Unlike the Frat Pack, there is a specific criteria to be a member of the Brat Pack. The actor must have appeared in either The Breakfast Club or St. Elmo's Fire and also appeared in another movie with one of their fellow Brat Packers.
This means the official members of the Brat Pack were Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. The only actor to not earn Brat Pack status, due to her not appearing in another movie with her costars, is Mare Winningham. There is also a number of close associates to the Brat Pack (Charlie Sheen, Ralph Macchio) but they are not official members due to the criteria listed above.
In this week's Alternate Takes, I will look at the Top 5 Brat Pack movies, films that involve at least two of the members of the group.
5. SIXTEEN CANDLES
Directed by John Hughes
Written by John Hughes
Cast: Molly Ringwald, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling, Haviland Morris, Gedde Watanabe, Anthony Michael Hall, Paul Dooley, Carlin Glynn, Blanche Baker, Edward Andrews, Billie Bird, Carole Cook, Max Showalter, Liane Curtis, John Cusack, Jami Gertz
This might be the most copied movie on my list. You see so much of this movie in just about every teen comedy since. The story of the girl who is forgotten by her family on her sixteenth birthday, lost among the chaos, was retold in Hughes' later film Home Alone. Anthony Michael Hall perfected the "Geek" stereotype he found himself trapped in. Long Duk Dong has been copied in everything from American Pie to Van Wilder. The sad thing is if you showed this movie to a kid today they would think it is a rip off but without Sixteen Candles, none of these movies would exist today.
In much the same theme as Pretty in Pink, Ringwald's "Sam" has two different love interests. The Geek wants Sam but Sam wants popular senior Jake (Michael Schoeffling). Unlike Pink, The Geek is only trying to get Sam to win a bet with his friends (one of which is a wonderful John Cusack). This brings the fact that this movie, unlike the others on this list, is an adult comedy.
There are great moments of bridezilla horror, sex comedy and the entire joke of selling an entry fee to view Sam's panties. This movie is more like an American Pie but eclipses even that comedy. The movie is sweet, funny and hilarious. It may have earned the reputation as a chick flick but is a great movie for everyone.
4. THE OUTSIDERS
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Written by Kathleen Knutsen Rowell
Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Glenn Withrow, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett, Darren Dalton, Michelle Meyrink, Tom Waits
While The Breakfast Club helped create the legendary Brat Pack, The Outsiders bears an even more important place in history. The Brat Pack members involved are Estevez and Lowe but take a look at the rest of the cast list to see how important this movie really is.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Outsiders was shot in my home state of Oklahoma, where the novel's author, S.E. Hinton, based it. Coppola chose to cast the movie with fresh young faces, but the faces would not remain unknown for very long.
Out of the Brat Packers, it was Rob Lowe's first screen role and Estevez's second, following Tex. The rest of the cast was filled out by some of the brightest young stars of the day. Interestingly enough, Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall read for Ponyboy, only to lose out to C. Thomas Howell. Actors like Adam Baldwin, Val Kilmer and Dennis Quaid also auditioned but when you look at the final cast, the final decision making must have been hell.
Howell had already been cast in E.T., but this was his first lead role. Matt Dillon had been acting for five years but this movie was his breakout role, the true star of the show. Ralph Macchio used his performance here to land the role of The Karate Kid. Patrick Swayze and Diane Lane were more experienced actors but it was another young actor who went on to become the biggest star in the world: Tom Cruise.
With the talent Coppola discovered, The Outsiders stands the test of time as the most important movie of the eighties.
3. PRETTY IN PINK
Directed by Howard Deutch
Written by John Hughes
Cast: Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, Andrew 'Dice' Clay, Gina Gershon
John Hughes found his muse in Molly Ringwald and following Sixteen Candles knew he had to find another movie to showcase her talent. That movie ended up being Pretty in Pink.
Pretty in Pink is a re-telling of the Cinderella story with Molly playing Andie Walsh, a poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks who falls in love with a rich boy named Blane (Andrew McCarthy). Ringwald continued to prove she was the go-to girl of the era for the awkward outsider having that "something" that made you want her to succeed. A lot of movies today try to replicate that but always casts the most beautiful girls in Hollywood and dulls them down until the moment the inner beauty comes out. Ringwald, while not ugly, is not one of the typical Hollywood pretty girls thus making her more realistic in this role than just about anyone you see trying it today.
Also in a great role as Andie's best friend Duckie is Jon Cryer. Cryer comes across as the strange nerdy guy who is so similar to Andie that you know they will only be friends, despite his crush on her. It is not a surprise that Brat Packer Anthony Michael Hall was offered the role but turned it down. He did not want to be typecast as the nerd but, ironically, this is the type of role he became best known for. Cryer did a great job in making Duckie weird but loveable at the same time. Compare him with the character of Steff, played by James Spader. Spader is perfectly smarmy as the arrogant, rich kid and displays a bit of Christian Slater in his performance.
Another strong character is Andie's alcoholic dad, played by Harry Dean Stanton. Both Andie and her father share a pained life, living without Andie's mother and facing the pain of rejection in different ways. The movie has been spoofed and copied many times over the years but Pretty in Pink still retains a uniqueness that makes it always stand out above the pack.
2. ST. ELMO'S FIRE
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Joel Schumacher and Carl Kurlander
Cast: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Mare Winningham, Andie MacDowell
Before Kevin Smith made a career out of "it", St. Elmo's Fire perfected "it". St. Elmo's Fire is the perfect fable of what it is like to get out of college and have no idea of what the fuck to do next. The movie focuses on a group of college friends who find themselves at a crossroads with no idea where they are going.
Estevez still works as a waiter with hopes of someday becoming a lawyer. Lowe is the wild child of the group, unable to cope with the fact that he is a college graduate with no direction but an estranged wife and child he does not know how to deal with. McCarthy is a writer, and believe me that is one of the most unsecure jobs out there. He also has a secret crush on his friend Leslie (Sheedy), a hopeless romantic who is pursuing a career as an architect. Leslie is the girlfriend of Alec (Nelson), a young Democrat who decides to work for a Republican after graduation to improve his stance in life. Winningham plays a girl from a rich family who strives to live her life helping others while Demi Moore is the former party girl who loses her job and her place in life.
The group is obnoxious at times but comes across as real people, facing real problems, and it is a heartbreaking story that never feels false. Where The Breakfast Club shows the integration of archetypes into solidarity, St. Elmo's Fire breaks those archetypes down and shows what happens when these kids have to face the real world. It is never as easy as it seemed in college.
1. THE BREAKFAST CLUB
Directed by John Hughes
Written by John Hughes
Cast: Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
When John Hughes passed away this year, many people looked back on the man's career and his great achievements. He directed great movies like Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and wrote comedy classics like National Lampoon's Vacation and Home Alone. The guy was responsible for most of the eighties best comedies. However, his greatest achievement is the iconic eighties classic The Breakfast Club.
On the DVD's features, the producers of The Breakfast Club mention the Brat Pack moniker was created by entertainment media looking for the next big young stars and painted them as unruly and spoiled stars. The producers also incorrectly claim they discovered all these kids, who they called virtual unknowns at the time. I guess they have conveniently forgotten about The Outsiders, Vacation and Sixteen Candles, all movies released before this classic.
Despite the hoopla, the fact of the matter is this movie did more to define the roles of the generation more than any other. If a movie like this were to be released today, it would be a spoof. The reason is because, while the movie is highly original, the characters are all stereotypes. Estevez is the jock, Ringwald the good girl, Sheedy the loner, Hall the nerd and Nelson the rebel.
The fact that one of each archetype ends up in detention together is hard to believe but the fact the movie is so great speaks volumes for Hughes' ear for the generation. I was fifteen years old when this movie came out and I don't care what anyone else says, this was how kids thought at that time. I don't care if you were a nerd, a jock, or a loner there is something here that speaks to you. This movie was as real as it gets for kids like me.
